CHARLES LINDBERGH and the old letter

When I first went through the boxes of photos from the George Kallman estate I certainly wasn't expecting to find a photo like this. It was in an old paper bag that had "other friends" written on the outside. Inside the bag were a jumble of photos of different people. When I saw this one I'm sure my eyes bugged out a little bit as I recognized the face. Charles Lindbergh. I was holding a photo of Charles Lindbergh. How did it end up in the "other friends" bag? I'll never know.

The back of the photo is shown below.

From this information I'm gathering the photo was taken in Glendale, California by R. C. Talbot. You can see another photo taken by Talbot of the terminal here from the Smithsonian collection. Click here to go to a page showing a photo Talbot took of Amelia Earhart (go approximately half way down the page) at the terminal. And click here to see a photo of Talbot with the Wilson Aero Service troupe from a book about the old airport.

The Grand Central Air Terminal is still standing according to Wikipedia and is owned by the Walt Disney Company. Alas, who knows what currently resides on the ground where Lindbergh once stood.

Grand Central Airport, Glendale, California, also known as Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT), was an important facility for the growing Los Angeles suburb of Glendale in the 1920s. It was also a key element in the development of United States aviation. The terminal, located at 1310 Air Way, was built in 1928 and is still there. Owned since 1997 by the Walt Disney Company, it remains the last standing structure, and sole surviving witness, to the area's historic significance, and is in urgent need of restoration and repair. The single concrete 3,800-foot (1,200 m) runway still exists, but it was dug up and converted into Grand Central Avenue, serving cars, not airplanes. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Below is my next Lindbergh "souvenir" purchased years ago at an antique store. Just a little letter in a little envelope. The envelope measure 3.5" x 3" and was sent from San Francisco to Los Angeles on September 17, 1927. On May 20 of the same year Lindbergh set out on his historic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, landing in France on May 21st to a crowd estimated to be 150,000.

This little letter surprised me when I stood in the cluttered antique store reading it. I think you'll be surprised too.

I doubt today's children even know who Lindbergh was. Compared to their fast paced world he's low tech and nothing but history. But this photo and letter bring back a little bit of the mystery about a person who was famous for doing something, not for just promoting themselves as a spectacle.

This is my Sepia Saturday post and for a change I'm actually following the suggested theme.